Kakashi & Sakura Drabble Challenges
by Winter Ashby
Summary: Kakashi & Sakura Drabbles from the LiveJournal community. Each chapter will feature a different word. Collection of oneshots, not a fic. The range from K to M. Check each chapter for summaries and ratings. Add to alert so you don't miss the new challenges
1. 17 Time

**Title: **Time**  
Author:** Winter Ashby (_rosweldrmr_)  
**Disclaimer: **Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto & Challenge © kakasakudrabble at LiveJournal  
**Rating: **K  
**Word Count: **500 - exactly!  
**Summary: **Time is constant and yet, ever changing. It can tear lives apart, and put them back together, if it's so inclined. Time is the glue that held them together and pushed them past their pain and regret. Time has a way of fixing mistakes. (Kakashi & Sakura)  
**Authors Notes: **Week 17 Theme: Time. This is the first time that I've tried out one of these themed challenges... I don't know what made me do it. I guess I just liked the idea of 'time' as a connector - especially for these two. But Drabbles are soooooo easy to write, in fact, the hard part was keeping it UNDER 500 words. I had to edit this down. I hope you all like it.

* * *

Time was a passing breeze that caressed his face and lulled the ache in his heart. Time healed the wounds left behind in the wake of wars past and lives lost. Time was what brought him to her. On an empty street corner, abandoned, crying, broken. But unlike him, the passing time couldn't heal the hole in her heart. 

Time brought new seasons, new masters and missions. Time brought her strength and an infallible ability to heal. But she couldn't heal herself – and time couldn't heal her either.

So he gathered her in his strong arms and let her cry, because he knew she needed to.

He brought her home, and let her sleep; because he knew she wanted to.

He made her breakfast and watched as she gathered her pride and ate his eggs, because he knew she would let him.

And when she stayed another day he said nothing, because he knew she wouldn't want him to.

And when she curled around his lanky body in the dead of night he pulled her closer, because **he** wanted to.

And time seemed passed them by, unaffected and unhindered. The seasons changed, and she was her own master and followed him on missions. Perhaps, time had changed them more than he could see, more than the passing days allowed him to understand. It was gradual, and slowly swept the pain under the rug of years past and hearts broken.

Time was no longer the shadow of a past that bound them together with grief and regret – time had become a companion to the story of their lives. The more time passed, and the further he pulled her from _before_, the closer she was to him.

Time was the bearer of pain and joy. And in the sunset of their days, he found that she was appealing in the most destructive ways. Until one day he woke with her in his bed and was quite sure that time had stolen his sense of decency.

Time, once again, had conspired against his stony heart. Because when she twisted her fingers with his and lay with every inch of her tempting body against him, he could see the ghost of another girl he'd failed to protect from the passing time so long ago.

He recognized that this was his chance for redemption, at the happiness that time had stolen from him all those years ago. And he was sure when she looked closely at him, and his past time, she saw the cold black eyes that streaked crimson in the shadow of the night. Because they were too similar, too familiar – he reminded her of _him_ just as she reminded him of _her_.

And they were meant for each other, separated by time. A generation apart, they finally found home and comfort in the reinventions of the ones they'd lost along the way. New names and different coloured hair gave way to a shared life and the distant promise of love previously denied.

* * *

So, what did you think? 

If you liked it, I'll think about going back to past weeks' challenges and doing those as well.

-_Ash _


	2. 16 Explaining

**Title: **Explaining  
**Author:** Winter Ashby (_rosweldrmr_)  
**Disclaimer: **Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto & Challenge © kakasakudrabble at LiveJournal  
**Rating: **K+  
**Word Count: **500 - exactly!  
**Summary: **It was a simple matter of rationality, so he would explain it to himself. But then she looked at him, and all the logic he could imagine couldn't explain it anymore. So he lies to himself, and lies to her. (Kakashi & Sakura)  
**Authors Notes: **Week 16 Theme: Explaining. I like the way this turned out... (Number of times I used the word of the day - 13)

* * *

He would explain it to himself sometimes. 

Explain why his hands itched to touch her hair and why he wished he could taste her lips.

But he never really believed himself away.

So he would explain why it was wrong to want her, to watch the way her hips moved with the wind and her skirt hiked up in the back.

He would explain why she was so alluring when he knew that no one could see him looking. It was because she was young, and strong, and proud, and so close to being everything he dreamed of.

But it was all a lie anyway.

So when she _did_ catch him watching, he simply explained that she reminded him of someone he used to know.

He was becoming a better liar – he almost believed himself.

So he watched her _carefully_ from just behind the cover of his illicit book and fractured self-control. She would be the end of his loose morals, and he only liked her more for that.

She was oblivious, or at least that's the only way he could explain why she kept coming back.

But, he **couldn'**t explain why she looked at him like _that_.

Or the way her hands would lightly graze over the exposed skin of his forearms when she'd greet him, or excuse herself from his presence.

Or the way his skin would prickle under her touch.

Or the way he watched her walk away and had to suppressed the urge to call her back.

He explained to himself that he just didn't like to see her back because it was sad.

He **didn't** explain _why_ it was sad. Because, damn it – he was allowed to have some secrets. Even it that meant that it was a secret he kept from himself.

But he was only lying to himself again, and much less convincing this time.

He liked the way her eyes would follow him through the dark on a moonless night. He liked the way she smelled when he caught her looking. And the way she felt when he carried her from the battle ground, battered and bloody – but alive, because she was strong and powerful. He liked the way she killed people, because she was cold and methodical. He liked the way she mirrored himself, and he didn't because she wasn't really the same person anymore.

He **tried** to explain that he was her superior and he wouldn't allow her to be transferred. He tried to explain to Tsunade that she was safer with him.

He tried explaining it to Sakura, because, after all, it was her life he was trying in vain to keep in the palm of his gloved hand.

She watched him with soft eyes unshed tears that threatened to spill from her tentative composure at the news of her former love's passing. She succeeded.

She didn't say a thing. He almost wished she would.

He explained to himself that she was just testing him.

And he was failing.

**

* * *

Foot Notes**:

I think I've decided to do all the past challenges - Time is getting good reviews.

I was going to try and go in reverse order, but I think I will just skip around now...

Plus drabbles are just so much fun to write... perhaps I will try this in my Miroku & Kagome group - except from 500 - 1000 words, because 500 is too short!


	3. 14 First

**Title: **First  
**Author:** Winter Ashby (_rosweldrmr_)  
**Disclaimer: **Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto & Challenge © kakasakudrabble at LiveJournal  
**Rating: **M for sexual innuendoes - Kakashi has a dirty mind.  
**Word Count: **500 - exactly!  
**Summary:** First, he would undress her. Then... (Kakashi & Sakura)  
**Authors Notes: **Week 14 Theme: First. I couldn't help myself. I saw the word of the week and just had to do it! You know you like it!

* * *

First he would undress her. 

He would inch the zipper down her chest and past her stomach.

Then he would peal the red from her shoulders and let it disappear behind him, lost to the warm wooden floors.

Then he would slip the shinning blade of his kunai through the mesh that held her bandages down. He liked the way her eyes widened when he pulled out the weapon and the way her breath caught in her throat when metal met flesh in fleeting grazes.

Then he would unwrap her, like a present. He laughed while pulled the white fabric from her chest and let the cheerful noise die in his mouth as she became agonizingly bare for him.

He would lick his lips, because she was so close now – he could almost taste her.

Then he would tip her back and down to met with silken sheets and feather pillows.

Then he would unbuckle the fabric of her pull-away skirt.

He like this the most, because at the exact moment the buckle relinquished its hold, he dipped his face down to pull it from her with his teeth. She seemed to like this too.

Then he would take hold of her hips, careful to dig his fingers into the hallow dips on her back on either side of her spine.

Then he would work the fabric of her tiny shorts over her hips and past reality straight into his most vivid fantasies.

Then – he would just look at her.

Her skin was marred with scars and bruises – because she was a kunoichi. He liked her even more.

Next he would undress himself.

He wasn't as careful.

He tore and ripped at the fabric that kept him from her and hated clothes at that moment; because they were obsolete and completely unnecessary. They only got in the way.

He removed his mask last, and smiled as she gasped in subtle surprise.

He wanted even more.

Then he was naked and hovering over her.

Waiting, breathing, waiting, watching, waiting, hoping, waiting, living, waiting, dying, waiting, wanting…

She invited him in with the curl of her lips and the bashful twitter of her luscious lashes.

Then he hesitated.

She was innocent, and young. And he was perverted, and old.

He leaned down and tasted her lips, sweet and bitter, just like he always imagined she would be.

Then she would kiss back, her tiny hands wandering over his back and through his hair. Her tongue slid against his and he moan into her lips.

Then she would say his name, low and throaty, like she knew exactly what she wanted. And her hips bucked and scrapped again the one part of him that ached for her so much so that breathing became difficult in the wake of her proximity.

Then his trepidation would melt away in the heat of her embrace.

Then he would pull back and move in.

Then he would wake up.

…

First he would take a cold shower…

* * *

In the immortal words of Quagmire: 

Giggidy, giggidy, gig-gi-dy!


	4. 13 Discovery

**Title: **Discovery  
**Author:** Winter Ashby (_rosweldrmr_)  
**Disclaimer: **Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto & Challenge © kakasakudrabble at LiveJournal  
**Rating: **K  
**Word Count: **500 - exactly!  
**Summary:** She discovered him broken, and leaking fragments of his humanity in the shadow of the memorial stone. She watches him and tried to understand, but she confuses his face for another in the dead of night. (Kakashi & Sakura)  
**Authors Notes: **Week 13 Theme: Discovery. Ha ha - I can change perspectives! Welcome to Sakura's side! Number of time I used the magic word - 8!

* * *

She discovered him that night, alone, in the never-ending rain, shivering, nearly catatonic in the shadow of the black monument. Her heart ached for him then, because it was almost the same, and yet not. 

Long ago, she'd heard the story of his past, and the history of his legendary Sharingan. But it didn't help her to understand him any more. He was an enigma – a package of guilt and pain and unbridled lust that walked in the past and laughed in the sunlight.

But she could see him in the shadows now, and she was sure that she was missing something. There was a piece of him that he'd kept hidden, all these years. She wanted to know what the missing part was.

Perhaps it was because somewhere, in the back of her convoluted mind, it registered that if she figured out what part of him was missing – she might be able to find the piece of herself that she'd lost so long ago.

He reminded her of someone else. Just sometimes though, like in the picture from his chuunin team that she'd seen above his bed. His cold eyes and stubborn pout was just the way she remembered it.

But she couldn't have remembered _his_ pout, because she'd never known him with it. So she replaced the scarecrow from her nightly vigils with the flaming fan from her past. It didn't always work out the way she wanted.

And when she dreamt at night, blood-red eyes and raven hair were beginning to be replaced by half of the blood-red eyes and silver locks that still stood in front of a sleek, stone memorial.

She discovered that it wasn't so hard to dream of him and wake to find him still keeping his vesper in the face of a past he was haunted by. She couldn't tell if he'd moved. She assumed he had. She assumed too many things these days.

She wondered what he dreamt of, and with a slight chill on the early autumn morning, she admitted to herself that she probably didn't want to know what he saw when his mismatched eyes shut to the world.

She discovered his humanity and frailty. He was lost in the middle of a snow-less winter night, drunk and stumbling past the stone to weep in the low bushes.

She discovered her empathy for him.

She discovered that he was easier to carry home that she would have guessed.

She discovered that he was warm in the dead of a cold winter night, regardless of snow.

She discovered that when she woke to the new day, he was gone, like a ghost on the wind. But she didn't worry too much about her empty bed or used towels.

She knew where to find him. In the snow or rain – he was faithful and drawn to the pain, like a moth to the flame.

She'd discovered his pattern.

He was her silent Brigadoon.

Perhaps, she would discover him again one day…

**

* * *

Foot Notes**:

Brigadoon is a mysterious village in Scotland, which comes to life only once every hundred years. But then it fades away into the mist at dawn, and it won't be discovered again for another 100 years.

If you have any other questions, please just ask. I will do my best to answer them all clearly! ;)


	5. 11 Honesty

**Title: **Honesty**  
Author:** Winter Ashby (_rosweldrmr_)  
**Disclaimer: **Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto & Challenge © kakasakudrabble at LiveJournal  
**Rating: **T  
**Word Count: **500 - exactly!  
**Summary:** Honestly, he never expected this to happen. (Kakashi & Sakura)  
**Authors Notes: **Week 13 Theme: Honesty. There was going to be two additions to this archive today, by is being MEAN, again. It isn't allowing me to upload anything, again. Didn't think problem just get fixed, like today? Oh well, at least I got this one up in time!

* * *

Honestly, he never expected it to happen. He was sure that he'd grow old, and alone, and unloved. 

But then she looked at him like she understood, and part of his veneer cracked and fell away.

He watched her fight, slicing through attackers and showing no remorse.

He watched her heal, and felt insignificant under the light of her green chakra entering his body.

He should have died that day, but as the new dawn rose, he owed her his life.

Honestly, he thought he'd die at 36 on some mission in another country.

She was like a memory he'd misplaced in the future.

She spoke to him with sideways glances and lingering futility. His shell began to buckle under the weight of denying two people's desires. She was getting strong.

He was sure he was treading on dangerously thin ice that night he found her in the bar and offered to walk her home.

He _knew_ he was in trouble when he woke the next morning in the wrong bed, wrapped in the arms of a woman 13 years too young.

She was too close now, entwined in his life, draped over his chest and torso.

He'd made a fatal mistake.

Honestly, he never wanted this.

To him, she was still 13, and he'd managed to trample over his own morals with only a fleeting look outside her door.

He let her get too close, because he couldn't just pull away anymore. He'd let her into his life and allowed her to wander through his dreams.

But this was decidedly different, because this was real.

Be decided to blame the alcohol and removed himself from her embrace.

She woke and smiled at him, like everything was just as it away was.

Honestly, he meant to leave.

But he was pulled back to her and her bed and her enticing lips. Her skin was velvet to his touch, and her hair was like silk running between his fingers.

He imagined that this is what heaven would feel like. Soft and so warm that you can't even imagine ever wanting to leave.

The morning turned into afternoon and he was still caught in her web of desperate yearning. The mid-day sun melted and the sky turned into a mixture of pinks and oranges and still he could not leave. Dark descended on them, and he'd barely managed to leave her bed to make some ramen.

Honestly, who was he kidding?

When the sun rose the next day, she was gone. There was a note, on pink paper resting on her pillow.

After a week, she was still gone, and the lingering scent of her fragrance was beginning to wash away. After a month, she was still gone, and the memory of her lips on his was beginning to fade. After a year, he still waited for her return, even after her name had been etched into the memorial stone.

He knew she would be back.

---

He was never good at honesty.


	6. 01 Growing

**Title: **Growing**  
Author:** Winter Ashby (_rosweldrmr_)  
**Disclaimer: **Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto & Challenge © kakasakudrabble at LiveJournal  
**Rating: **K+  
**Word Count: **500 - exactly!  
**Summary: **He watched as she grew.  
**Authors Notes: **Week 1 Theme: Growing.

* * *

He imaged that she was his garden. 

She started as a seed, fragile, small, and completely dependant.

So he tended to her and taught her how to reach her tiny sprout towards the sun and thrive in the soil.

And she grew.

It seemed like almost over night, she'd become a sapling.

Her soft, pink petals had been cut away and all that was left was the beauty of inner-strength.

He was proud of his fledgling garden.

But she was still small, and tender. So he protected her from the fierce wind that blew in the wake of passing flames.

And she grew.

In his absence, she'd grown different.

Her petals were once again cut short, and he could barely tear his eyes away from her shinning resolve.

Soon, she was tested, and injured, but victorious none-the-less.

In her return, she brought a new kind of growth. She was growing apart from him.

So he pulled her back and agreed to teach her once more how to reach for the sun and live in the soil.

She agreed.

He knew then, she would never be just another leaf in his extended garden, she would always be his beautiful Sakura tree.

In a way, watching her grow almost made him feel like he could grow as well. Even if he was old, and jaded – he looked at her and saw hope for a future where he wouldn't be so alone anymore.

There were many more battles to come, and encounters with the flame who nearly burned her in her youth. So they fought, as a nation divided by destiny and growing in strength. He watched as the gulf that separated them from the wayward flame grew to an insurmountable distance.

He did his part to distract and draw the enemy away. He was a scarecrow after all, watching over his garden of one.

So in the end, she stood victorious, and weeping, over her adversary. But he knew this man was more than just a foe, he had also been a great love lost.

So, he held her in his arms, because he was strong and even if he couldn't protect her forever – he could protect her that night from the nightmares that come when you sleep alone and dream of what he helped destroy. He knew those nightmares all too well.

And she was still growing.

But not away or up; this time she grew in.

He feared that she would never bloom like she had before. He missed her spring petals and the green of her vibrant eyes when the sun caught the spark of life she hid there.

He would not give up on his Sakura tree. So he sat with her, in summer silence and waited for her to return to him.

She put her hand in his and it was so natural he thought he might have always held it.

The following spring she crawled into his bed and kissed his lips.

Then, they grew together.

* * *

_Pardon my intirusion here at the end, but I am now on my knees begging, begging with tears in my eyes...please, help me!_

* * *

◦○O**ADVERTISEMENT**O○◦

**BETA wanted!**

I am deeply in need of someone who can check over my fics before they go up. I don't need anyone familiar with all the shows I watch or anything like that. All I need is someone who will read over my fics, highlight the problem sections in red and send it back. I will do all of my own editing, I just need fresh eyes who will point out the things I missed. And, this person should be over 17 because I have NC-17 fics that severely need a once over. And I refuse to corrupt innocent children for the sake of grammar. Seriously though... I do have SOME morals!


	7. 05 Kisses

**Title: **Kisses**  
Author:** Winter Ashby (_rosweldrmr_)  
**Disclaimer: **Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto & Challenge © kakasakudrabble at LiveJournal  
**Rating: **K+  
**Word Count: **500 - exactly!  
**Summary: **He didn't offer much, but his kisses were enough... for now.  
**Authors Notes: **Week 5 Theme: Kisses.

* * *

It was just a kiss.

One simple, innocent, unresolved, blazing, passionate, undeniably unbelievable kiss…

Okay, they were kisses.

But that didn't change the fact that they were meaningless.

She snorted in the silence of a black night and empty bed.

Even _she_ didn't believe that.

Because the way he looked at her sent shivers running down her spine.

She touched her lips in the dark and wondered when he would come again.

He said he couldn't help himself.

Even as his strong hands held her face and he brushed his lips lightly over hers, he whispered his apologies for being so weak.

And she forgot how to breathe.

So she waited for him, and his kisses. She wouldn't have to wait for long, because true to his word – he couldn't stay away.

He sat, perched on her opened windowsill, and looking just as lost as she was.

There was no greeting.

There was just the sound of his sandals on her wood floor, and the creak of her old bed under his weight.

His mask hung around his neck, and she could just make out the curve of his lips past the shadows. She thought she'd never seen anything look so _real_ before.

Because the way he looked at her as his hands slid up her body and cradled her face was real. The way her body shivered in his arms was real. His long silver bangs tickling her face was real. He was real, and in a moment of spontaneous clarity – she was sure that her fascination with him was real. He was much more than she'd let herself believe.

But the fear of being alone was growing inside… and she was sure he felt it too.

His eyes were so heartbreaking because she recognized them from the mirror each morning.

So she closed her eyes, and let her fears melt into the blazing passion of his lips on hers.

She was shrinking under the weight of his self-imposed prison.

She wondered then, if he could feel the way her heart speed up, and her hands shook.

She wished he did. She wished that someday, he would come for her in the daylight and take her hand so that the whole world could see too.

But tonight, the inky black brings him to her and their secret rendezvous, so she is stated in her desire for one day more.

She wraps her willing arms around his neck and accepts the meager gesture of infatuation he offers her this night.

Though, she knows that one day, kisses won't be enough. She knows that one day; she will want more…

She wonders if he would let her give more.

His lips are distracting.

So she allows herself to fold into his arms and unspoken promise to come again when the pain of singularity becomes too much for him to bear alone.

She will wait for him, and the day that he will bring more than just these empty, useless, addicting kisses.


	8. 06 Curiosity

**Title: **Curiosity**  
Author:** Winter Ashby (_rosweldrmr_)  
**Disclaimer: **Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto & Challenge © kakasakudrabble at LiveJournal  
**Rating: **K  
**Word Count: **500 - exactly!  
**Summary: **She wants to know why he mourns, but her quest comes at a price. (Kakashi & Sakura)  
**Authors Notes: **Week 6 Theme: Curiosity.

* * *

She was curious. 

Who wouldn't be?

He stood in front of that memorial stone for hours. But she never had the courage to ask who he stood for.

So, just like in her youth, she stalked him. She would watch him through the driving rain, and blistering heat – just waiting for him to reach down and touch a name, mumble a thought out loud… anything that would give her a hint.

But he was as unyielding as the stone it's self, and she resigned herself find other means.

She didn't understand where the burning need to know came from.

She blamed his mysterious personality.

She blamed his sad eyes and covered face.

She blamed anything but her own curiosity.

So she asked Kurenai. She sighed and told her it was too depressing a story to tell her on a warm summer day.

So she asked Asuma. He laughed nervously and took a drag from his cigarette before he told her it wasn't his past to reveal.

So she asked Gai. He didn't smile, or give her a nice guy pose and the look of absolute desolation that covered her face was too much.

So she waved her hands and told him to forget about it.

She was running out of sources.

Then she found a woman, alone, and just as mysterious perched in front of the stone with a mournful expression partially hidden by her ANBU mask and purple hair.

She'd seen her and Kakashi stand side by side at the stone in the past and exchange sideways glances of mutual regret.

So she asked her. 

"He mourns for his teammates. A young Uchiha boy who gave him his eye, a young medical kunoichi who was in love with him, and his sensei; who scarified his life for the sake of this village."

Sakura touched the names the woman showed her and wept for him.

The woman with purple hair and equally haunted eyes put her hand on her shoulder and placed an offering under the latest entry on the stone.

It was the young examiner with the cough and a sword. Then, she was gone and Sakura was left alone to mourn the lives she never knew and curse her own curiosity.

But she still watched him early in the mornings when he should have been at meetings or filling out paperwork. She understood now why he was always late, and she found it aggravatingly endearing.

He was such a heartbreaking man; even if he was hidden under layers of inappropriate books and casual charm.

It shouldn't have come as a surprise to her that she fell in love. But it did.

She woke one morning and waited for him to come. When the sun peaked and she was still alone, she knew she was in love.

It snuck up on her, sideways, like he did. He didn't come from the shadows like Sasuke did, but out of the corners of the sky.

He probably knew before she did.


	9. 12 Guilt

**Title: **Guilt**  
Author:** Winter Ashby (_rosweldrmr_)  
**Disclaimer: **Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto & Challenge © kakasakudrabble at LiveJournal  
**Rating: **K  
**Word Count: **500 - exactly!  
**Summary: **Guilt is not confined to one person. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. (Kakashi & Sakura)  
**Authors Notes: **Week 12 Theme: Guilt.

* * *

She had a way of making his insides twist with guilt. And all she had to do was look at him for it to settle in the pit of his stomach. 

It was in the way she smiled, and ran her hand down his arm as she said goodbye, and brushed her breasts across his forearm.

It was in the way she said his name, and in the fragmented moments when they were alone when she _forgot_ to add the 'sensei' honorific.

It was in the way she leaned in that night on the mission in Grass and told him she liked the way he hid his face.

It was in his fists at they pulled at the fabric of his half-gloves to keep him from pulled it off then just to prove her wrong. Just to taste her. Just to drown in her.

It was in the way he wanted her.

Shamelessly… and full of unequivocal guilt.

It ate at his chest, and tore open the rarely used spaces of his conscious.

---

He had a way of making her insides twist with guilt. And all he had to do was look at her for it to settle in the pit of her stomach.

It was in the way he strained the muscles under his uniform when she lightly grazed her covered chest over his arm.

It was in the way his breath caught in his throat when she mistakenly removed his title, like the absence of it would make it true.

It was in the way he drew back from her as she confessed that she preferred the dark fabric and mystery to whatever it was that he was hiding.

It was in her quivering thighs as she watched him in the firelight fight against her pull.

It was in the way she wanted him to want her.

Shamelessly… and full of unequivocal guilt.

It ate at her heart, and tore open the rarely used spaces of her loyalties to a man that abandoned his village and her.

---

They had a way of making his insides twist with guilt. And all they had to do was look at each other for it to settle in the pit of his stomach.

It was in the subtle ways they forgot he was alive when their eyes met.

It was in the way he wished things could just go back to they way they were.

It was in the way he wanted to hate them for betraying him, for leaving him out, or making him feel like he was the one who was out of place.

It was in the whispered conversations they had on missions when they thought he was asleep.

It was in the way they pretended not to want each other.

It ate at his heart, and tore open the rarely used spaces of his family that was changing right before his eyes.

---

Naruto just couldn't understand why he felt so guilty when he watched Kakashi and Sakura together.


	10. 08 Forbidden

**Title: **Forbidden**  
Author:** Winter Ashby (_rosweldrmr_)  
**Disclaimer: **Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto & Challenge © kakasakudrabble at LiveJournal  
**Rating: **T _(You're allowed to say the F word once in PG13 movies... so I get to say it once and keep it a T, okay???)_  
**Word Count: **500 - exactly!  
**Summary: **Tsunade said the one thing that Kakashi just couldn't stand to hear. (Kakashi & Sakura)  
**Authors Notes: **Week 8 Theme: Forbidden. Ummmm, the itallics is flashback... hopefully that will make sense.

* * *

It wasn't fair. Kakashi mused as he walked home from his visit with the Godaime. 

_She'd sent a bird while he was sparring with Sakura to request a meeting. He begrudgingly tore his eyes from Sakura's sweat-gleaming body and followed orders. _

He rumpled his face under the mask and followed the winding path from the Hokage Tower to his apartment.

_Tsunade was hunched over her desk, inspecting a stack of papers. But she couldn't fool him; he could smell the sake hidden in one of the desk drawers and leaking from her lips. _

_"You wanted to talk to me?" _

He wished he could just pretend it never happened… that she'd never asked to see him, and that he'd never heard her say the one thing that made him foam at the mouth for a chance at Sakura.

_"Have a seat Kakashi." She gestured at the single chair in the room and waited for him to sit. "There's something that I need to discuss with you." _

_He squirmed under her honey eyes and nodded. _

_"It's Sakura." He swallowed hard against the lump in his throat. _

Kakashi rounded the corner of his apartment building and froze in his place. There, standing next to the stairs was a pink-haired girl who grew up and filled out as well as the legendary Sannin.

_"I was hoping we would never have to have this conversation. But it's recently come to my attention that I can no longer ignore this situation." She crossed her arms and looked past him to the wooden door. _

_He tethered the clawing fear that pulled like a string at his heart. _

Sakura turned as he approached and smiled in a way that made his guts tie into knots. She was dangerous, and he knew instinctually that if he didn't escape her now, surely he'd do something he'd end up being punished for.

_"Several of your collages have come to me in the past few months about the situation with Sakura." She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. _

_"What situation?" _

_"Your situation." She pinned him under her gaze. "You know what I'm talking about." _

He tried to get past her, but she caught his arm in her tiny hand and demanded to know what the Hokage wanted to talk to him about. He struggled to lie, but her eyes rounded at the edges and he was helpless against her.

_"I had hoped that you would be smart enough to know better." She sighed dejectedly and frowned. _

_"I'm sorry to disappoint you, Hokage-sama." _

He looked down into her eyes, and the way her cheeks flushed and tried to remember why he was fighting so hard against pressing her against the railing and pressing his body against hers.

_"I'm only going to say this once, so pay attention." _

His resolve wavered as she licked her lips.

_"Stay away from her Kakashi."_

"Fuck it."

_"Sakura is forbidden." _

The next morning he smiled because no matter what the consequences were, she was worth it.

* * *

GOO!!!

Was that... FLUFF!!!???

::falls over::

Oh Lord, I'm turning into a softie. Fogive me. There will be more angst coming real soon... I swear.


	11. 20 Blood

**Title: **Blood**  
Author:** Winter Ashby (_rosweldrmr_)  
**Disclaimer: **Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto & Challenge © kakasakudrabble at LiveJournal  
**Rating: **M - for exteme bloodiness.  
**Warning**: This is really bloody, so don't say I didn't warn you, okay?**  
Word Count: **500 - exactly!  
**Summary: **He was soaked threw with her blood, and yet he couldn't bring himself to wipe it away. (Kakashi & Sakura)  
**Authors Notes: **Week 20 Theme: Blood. When I saw the promt for Blood I was really excited, I've been wanting to do this kind of violent fic for a long time. It's loosely based on Ore-sama's picture over at Deviantart. She's a great artist, and an inspiration. I stalk her... in a friendly way.

* * *

His hands were covered in her blood. 

It streamed down his face, and soaked into the material of his mask.

It made the air he breathed metallic and tangy. But he wouldn't remove it. Even as the blood began to dry and flake in the summer sun, he wouldn't pull the mask away. Instead he ran his tongue along the cloth and shivered to find that it tasted like her.

Her with her soft hair and gentle eyes. If she hadn't been so loyal, if she hadn't fallen in love _him_ …

"Gomen Kaka-sensei." She quirked her lips in a half smile that would have been endearing if it weren't for the blood that trickled from her lips and stained her neck cherry-red.

She died. Eyes glassy and pale. Her skin alabaster and mossy.

And still he wouldn't remove the mask. He couldn't. That would mean he'd have to pull his arm out of Sakura's chest cavity.

His hand lay in the grass in a puddle of blood that pooled around his knees. Her heart was gone, disintegrated with the force of his attack. He could feel the vomit rise in his throat.

"Sasuke, teme!" Kakashi lunged, chidori humming down his arm and vibrating the air around him. He could see his former student's eyes slim as he formed a slightly different set of seals and buzzed his new sword with electricity.

"I didn't think you had it in you, Kakashi." Sasuke's cold voice floated through the air charged with chakra and ignored the tears of the pink-hair kunoichi that lay in a bruised pile at the base of a tree. Sasuke's eyes followed Kakashi's to her, and smirked.

"I never should have trained you."

Sasuke moved with the limit of Kakashi's sharingan. And in that instant he was next to him, blade drawn.

"You're so right." He laughed and tore into sinew and muscle.

"Yamete!" Sakura's voice was rich with laden chakra reserves. Her eyes glimmered just before her feet hit the floor, cracking open the earth and sending pieces of the field splintering through the air.

Her fist cracked Sasuke's shoulder, shattering his bones and ripping into his chakra flow. He seethed, but still ignored her and sliced through Kakashi's outer thigh.

The blood rained down through the humming air and left spots of scarlet mixed with Sakura's pink hair.

Kakashi focused all the chakra he had left and used it to extend the blade of chidori from the tips of his fingers to slice into the air in front of his hand.

He swung.

Sakura only touched his face, rubbed the ruby into his silver hair and begged for forgiveness as his hand pierced her heart.

"I didn't think you had it in you to kill your own student." Kakashi could hear the echo of Sasuke's amused voice as he faded into the shadows, promising they'd settle things another day.

"Stupid girl."

Kakashi agreed, for once. He shook his head and let the tears come. "Foolish girl."

* * *

Hello angst... my old friend.


	12. 22 Pride

**Title: **Pride**  
Author:** Winter Ashby (_rosweldrmr_)  
**Disclaimer: **Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto & Challenge © kakasakudrabble at LiveJournal  
**Rating: **T  
**Word Count: **500 - exactly!  
**Summary: **It was a matter of Pride for Sakura. (Sakura & Kakashi)  
**Authors Notes: **Week 22 Theme: Pride. I'm sorry for the double posts, but when I get into the groove I just have to write. Sorry for the long lull in between posting. Hopefully it will pick up more soon.

* * *

It was a matter of pride. 

She didn't want to take his hand when she fell.

She didn't want to wipe away the blood when she killed.

She didn't want to love him when she knew it was wrong.

So she pretended that she didn't.

She imagined that he was just like everyone else so could push off to the side and forget about.

She could still forget that he was a part of her life.

Because it was a matter of pride.

She hated the way she blushed when he asked her if she'd like to try out some _new_ reading material.

She hated the way she began to sweat when she knew his eyes were on her.

She hated the way she would wake up in the middle of the night panting and clawing at her throat to release his name they way she always wanted to be able to.

She just hated him.

Because it was a matter of pride.

He was a distraction.

He distracted her from becoming a jounin.

He distracted her from living.

And she wasn't going to put up with it anymore.

Because it was a matter of pride.

She marched to his apartment, ashamed she knew the way so well and horrified to find that it fit perfectly with her lonely dreams where she woke unfulfilled and sought her own solace in a cold bath.

She knocked on the door and waited for his messy silver hair to protrude from around the corner of the wooden door so she could smash it into little splitters into his face for making her have to follow him home.

She waited…

And waited…

Until she heard rustling and muffled voices.

Then his silver hair caught the fading sunlight and she felt her heart beat increase. She forgot that she was going to punch him in the face. She forgot that she was going to make him admit that he loved her too, so she could shake her head smugly and say "I know, but this isn't meant to be."

She forgot everything.

"Ah, good evening Sakura. What can I do for you?"

"Um…" She twisted her fingers together and rubbed the ball of her foot against the smooth wooden floors of the open hall.

"Who is it, Kakashi?" A woman's voice came from somewhere beyond the door.

"It's no one, just Sakura." He tilted his head, and it was then she glimpsed the way his lips were swollen, and his clothes were rumpled and creased, and crooked.

"Kurenai-sensei?" Sakura recognized the older woman's voice and aura and felt a slanting sensation begin to curdle in her gut.

"Ah, we're a little busy Sakura. So if we could talk about what ever it is tomorrow…" His voice drifted into the background of her heart tearing into incongruent pieces.

She turned from his stupid smiling face and stupid OCCUPIED apartment and ran. She wouldn't let him see her cry.

After all, it was a matter of pride.

* * *

heartbreak I know - I'm evil.


	13. 04 Fantasy

**Title: **Fantasy**  
Author:** Winter Ashby (_rosweldrmr_)  
**Disclaimer: **Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto & Challenge © kakasakudrabble at LiveJournal  
**Rating: **M  
**Word Count: **500 - exactly!  
**Summary: **Sakura would fantasize about seeing Kakashi again. (Sakura & Kakashi)  
**Authors Notes: **Week 04 Theme: Fantasy. I just couldn't help myself. I love Shippouden sooo much!!! Watching Kakashi's face when Sakura busted the ground apart, and seeing them sparring was sooooo HOT!

* * *

Sakura would fantasize about seeing Kakashi again. She would imagine what he'd say when he finally saw her again, after a year-and-a-half of being away. 

Sakura would close her eyes at night and dream.

_He'd incline his head, and tuck his tattered, orange book into his weapon's pouch. "You've grown." He'd say in a smooth voice as he ran his eye over her frame. _

_"I'm a medic-nin now." She would say, and rest her hand against his chest. "Like Rin." _

_"But you're stronger than Rin ever was." And then he'd pull the corner of his mask down a little. "I think it's time I showed you." His husky voice would whisper in her ear. "It's time to see what I've hidden from you." _

_And he'd kiss her, the way she'd seen him kiss a women at a bar one night. He'd hold the back of her head, run his tongue over her lips, and press her flatly against every inch of his body. _

Sakura would think about this while she trained. She would imagine what he'd say when he finally got to see how strong she was. She fantasized about the way he would feel against her skin.

She imagined that he would be so hot he'd burn her flesh away, so that she could re-grow her skin to be tough, like his. She imagined what it would be like to run her tongue over his exposed neck, and brush her chest over his forearm.

She fantasized about the day that he would acknowledge her as an equal, and not pat her on the head like he always did.

Sakura wanted him to come home, so that she could wrap her legs around his waist in a sparring session, and feel him wriggle, caught in the trap of her well-toned thighs. She imagined pinning him against the dirt and grass in a deserted clearing.

She thought about plucking leaves him his silver hair and running her hands over his naked face.

_"What are you doing?" He'd ask as he pulled away from her touch, like it burned. _

_"Taking what's mine." She would say, as she kissed him. _

_"Sakura." He'd whisper her name in a strained voice as he fought to keep control. _

_"It's okay Kakashi." She'd unzip his jacket. "I want you to." _

_And he'd push her back against a tree, a frantic look in his eyes. His hands would shake with repressed longing as he pulled her skirt down. His fingertips would graze over her thighs, and he'd look up at her. _

_"I've waited so long for this." And she'd let her head roll back against the bark as he undressed her. _

Sakura imagined how he would taste, and what the sheets of his bed would feel like the morning after they stumbled through his front door and crashed to the floor tangled together.

She didn't care that it was impossible, or that she was betraying her love for Sasuke, because honestly… he wasn't a part of her fantasy.


	14. 23 Mistake

**Title: **Mistake**  
Author:** Winter Ashby (_rosweldrmr_)  
**Disclaimer: **Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto & Challenge © kakasakudrabble at LiveJournal  
**Rating: **M  
**Word Count: **500 - exactly!  
**Summary: **Sakura would fantasize about seeing Kakashi again. (Sakura & Kakashi)  
**Authors Notes: **Week 23 Theme: Mistake. Sorry about all the vomit, I was dead sick when I wrote this. And Yamato's first appearance in one of my fics! Yay

* * *

It was a mistake.

Sakura rolled over onto her side and threw up on the wood floor. Her head was throbbing and she felt like she had cotton in her mouth.

The sun was bright and hurt her face. She squinted through the curtain of her pink hair just over her bare shoulder.

There, twisted in unfamiliar sheets was a pillow and a body.

A man's body, she noted the slight hints of a bare chest on his left side where the sheet was pulled away. There were scars nicked all down the exposed skin. She looked back up at the pillow that covered the man's face. Her heart raced, and she felt sick again.

_Don't be him, don't be him._

She could just make out the streaks of silver hair against the white sheets.

Sakura threw up again.

She had no idea how she ended up there. She vaguely recalled Naruto convincing her to go out to a bar. There might have been some karaoke involved, she wasn't sure. Although, she thought she remembered Kakashi offering to walk her home.

_Looks like we didn't quite make it._

Tentatively, Sakura lifted the sheets. It wasn't that much of a surprise that she was naked, but still, she turned bright red and pulled the sheets around herself. She scanned the room and found her clothes in a pile in the corner. Not only hers… she recognized the dark blue jumper and green flack jacket.

_Well of course he's naked too._

"Sensei?" She whispered and watched his body carefully for any sign of movement. There was nothing. Just even, slow, breathing.

So she slid from the covers and tiptoed, naked, to the corner. She dressed in a hurry, forgetting to bind her breasts or look for her underwear. Her hair was mussed and her clothes were rumpled.

She'd never slept with a man, and as far as she was concerned, she still hadn't.

_Does it count if you can't remember?_

She slipped into the bathroom and removed a towel from under the sink. It was strained and torn. She used it to silently wipe up her vomit and rinsed it in the bathtub. By the time she was done, the sun was high in the sky. Kakashi still hadn't moved. She wasn't sure if he was faking it or not.

Sakura decided she didn't care as she made her way for the door. Once she got there, she backed out slowly and shut it without taking her eyes off Kakashi.

"Sakura, what are you doing here?" Yamato stood a few feet behind her. She spun around and nearly burst with embarrassment.

"Yamato-taichou! This isn't what it looks like!" she immediately waved her hands in front of her face, like it would distract him.

"I see."

"Don't tell anyone, please." She pleaded as she backed away and then ran all the way home.

"Kakashi-sempai, how could you?" Yamato shook his head scornfully.

"It was a mistake." Kakashi didn't sound the least bit sorry.


	15. 09 Attraction

**Title: **Attraction**  
Author:** Winter Ashby (_rosweldrmr_)  
**Disclaimer: **Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto & Challange © kakasakudrabble at LiveJournal  
**Rating: **M  
**Word Count: **500 - exactly!  
**Summary: **It was infuriating, to want her but not want her (Kakashi & Sakura)  
**Authors Notes: **Week 09. Theme: Attraction. This is the last of the drabbles before I post the joint-drabbles I've been working on. There are 2 Arcs. The Voyeurism Arc (kinky) and the Angst Arc (yes, I know - very original name. pfft). So there you have it. They should each be about 4 chapters long. I hope you all will enjoy. More to come soon.

* * *

He was attracted to her. That much was clear. He didn't want to admit it. He hated acknowledging she had _any_ kind of power over him. But it was true, truer with each passing day. 

He could feel it in his fingers and see it reflected in the mirror.

He was sure everyone else could see it too.

It was like a tattoo that he wore across his forehead and down his sleeves. He was covered in his own fatal flaw. And what's more, he didn't even _feel_ like trying to hide it anymore. Somewhere along the line, between missions and the hospital, he forgot that he was supposed to be above things like _wanting_, and _needing_ (neither of which he could distinguish when he watched her train). It all melded together, fused under the midday sun and puckered into a kind of _desperation_ he was sure she could smell coming off him in waves.

It was infuriating, to want her but not want her, and all the meanwhile dying a little from all the useless self-restraint he didn't want/relied too much on to keep his attraction from become more than it should – more than it already was.

He was doom, he decided.

Damned if he did, damned if he didn't. He was never big on consequences, but when he practically salivated watching her, he considered that perhaps he would burn in a special kind of hell.

He shouldn't be attracted to her, or her hourglass figure, or her monstrous power, or her innate chakra abilities. He shouldn't be attracted to a single attribute of his former student, and he knew it.

He cursed Jiraiya for corrupting him so completely that he couldn't even distinguish the line between slightly inappropriate reading material and outright taboo lusting. It was easier to blame someone else, at least then, he could take someone down with him.

He started to replace the images from his books with pink hair, green eyes and healing chakra. He stopped reading then and decided that he was just childish enough to hate her because she ruined his books.

She doesn't seem to notice though, and that only made it harder to keep away.

He watches and pretends that he can't see the way her toned muscles slide and buckle under the skin-tight ANBU uniform. He pretends that her own swirling tattoo doesn't make him want to beg her to take him home. He pretends too much.

Except when he's all alone at night, with nothing but his loose morals and wicked imagination, and it's enough to make him give in, if only for himself. He pictures her in his mind as he strains for a completion that will never fully come. And when it's all said and done, he's left just as empty as he was before. An aching kind of want slowly replaces lust, piece by piece, bit by bit. So that he doesn't really notice he's falling in love with her, not until it's too late.

* * *

Oh, snuck that 'L' word there at the end, didn't I? Sneaky, sneaky.


End file.
